Ello all:) Second time user of LO and so far i like it. It has a steppish learning curve though haha.
ANyway, here is my issue. I inserted a .skp into my page, copied it 3 times to make my top, front, right and ISO views. I went to dimension it and noticed that it was creating dims in meters. I opened the file in SU, changed units to mm and saved.
I opened LO and on each view, i right click, update model reference. I try to create dims again and it still in meters.
LO document properties is in mm as well.
thanks:)
EDIT: Can you do radial dims as well or do i have to manually input those?
Seen as though the viewports all come from the same model, you only need to update one of them and they should all update.
But, updating the model reference isn’t your problem here.
That won’t affect LO, it’s only the units you see in the SU model. What you have to do is set up the dimensions in LO to display as you want.
Select Dimension tool, with it active go to the Dimensions Window that should be on the tray on the right side usually. Set the unit of measurement there and precision. You should be now measuring in the new units you selected. Do this for both Linear and Angular Dimension Tools.
Now everytime you select either tool for the current document, your new units will be used. However, if you open a new document with the same template you chose, your Dimension settings will revert back to the current template.
That’s where saving your own template comes in to great use amongst many other benefits.
As for radial dimensions, I think you will have to add them manually. Radial dimensions have been requested in LO, I hope the SketchUp team can figure that one out.
Ohhhh, ok, once i opened up the tools on the side, i went through them and near the bottom, i found the dimension window. I jave now changed the units.
Thank you for showing me that. As for radial dimenaions, i have been able to find center points of the arcs. Im wondering if when i created the part, i used circles rather than arcs and just erased the edges i didnt need and thats why the center points are showing up?
Anyway, so far the drawing is looking good. Now its time to add other views if possible, such as detail views, aux, and section views. I know the models are not “solid” so some views might be tough
I think the center points of a Circle and an Arc will always show up in LO, whether they’ve been exploded or not, can’t quite remember though.
However when you dimension across the diameter of a circle for example, you get the green Endpoint inference on each of the circles points as if the circle has in fact been exploded, whether it has or not. This is normal.
I’ve found it’s very important to draw the circles on axis where possible in SketchUp, so that the cardinal points lie on 3/6/9/12 o’clock positions to word it another way. To make this dimension both accurate and easier to place.
I’ve sometimes had to go back to SU and rotate a circle to get things right. But, it makes more sense to do it right in the first place. This is probably more relevant to your other topic where DaveR were helping you out though.
You can drag those tool palettes into any order you like. I tend to have the more used ones at the top as leaving them near the bottom can make it more cumbersome to get to… if like me you tend to leave them open!
Would you be willing to do a screen shot of this so i can see what you mean:) thanks. I think i know what you mean but maybe i dont. my brain feels fuzzy about this haha
not to tread on Ian’s toes, but this is what he means ( i think). When drawing a circle to inference to one of the green or red axes (or if vertical blue and red or green) not a black line which is arbitrary (second circle). Because circles are made or many straight lines it keeps the vertex at the extremity.
WR Shows what I mean above, by drawing the circles on an axis. This is what happens when you do both, see how the endpoints of the circle on the right don’t lie on the centers of the hole…
If you were to dimension that in SU you might not have that much of an issue as you can pull the dia. of the hole with the Dimension tool within the component container…
I send that to LO, as we currently only have linear and angular dimensions (not dia. or radius) I measure the dia. across the hole with the linear dimension tool. This is what happens in LO when I try that on both the holes. The on axis one works fine, but the off axis only shows correctly when the dimension is skewed. I find it does help to bear in mind what kind of dimension you should be getting in advance, to keep an eye on things.
Here’s what happens in LO, depending what I dimension I might not place the dimensions this way in particular but it shows the effect…
BTW If you have any more questions, I think you should continue to ask them in the topic you started below we’re swinging way off topic in this thread now I think.
Don’t you think if SU knows its a circle it should provide the same dia info?
One of the reasons I set the dimension “accuracy” to something more coarse, then those examples above would show the same measurement. Just one of those SU peculiarities
In either program.
In sketchup there is a choice between a circle tool and a polygon tool, but it seems like the circle is just another polygon with many faces?..so why a different tool?
Anyway, as such making the distinction with two different tools, it seems like if it was drawn as a “circle” that any dimensions taken from it should honor the original intent? and report the diameter no matter where it is measured from.
When dimensioning a polygon, one would expect to see differences.
It’s not anything you are doing, it just seems like an odd SU glitch.
In SU you go into the component to be able to place a radial or diameter dimension. Seen as though LO “sees” right down to the endpoints of the circle I would hope that radial and diameter dimensions could be tapped into and added to LO at some stage. I do find it odd they are not already present.
For now it is what it is I suppose. I’m just sharing the experiences I’ve had with LO. I have to say I’m not a fan of increasing the coarseness of dimensions to make them report correctly. I model to 0.1mm precision so I want my dimensions to reflect that accuracy wherever possible and should be at a round mm, if they don’t that’s a flag (for me) that somethings not right.
Oh yes, i see what you mean with the circles:) I ALWAYS make sure to have every shape on some sort of axis. I cant stand when they are not. Back in my first SU days i used to draw that way and i ran into way to many issues haha.
LO seems to be a nice tool so far. I am hoping the department of education will get back to me today and give me the go ahead to update to 2018 version.
